The first picture is from 2018, more than a year before the first Coronavirus case entered the country. It is from Cosplay Matsuri, one of the last events of the year. Notice that crowd there? In a normal convention day, its normal, but after the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) stuck, it has become nonexistent, and now close to extinction.
Yes, the Covid-19 has upended everyone’s lives, rich or poor, young or old. The virus that was first discovered (well the origins are still being debated heavily) in Wuhan, China, has already afflicted more than 152 million individuals and killed 3.2 million across the globe (based on May 2, 2021 data from Johns Hopkins University), including some 1.054 million in the Philippines since the virus was first discovered in January 2020.
While our recovery rate continues to be high (91.6 percent, or 966,080 total recoveries as of May 2 DOH data), it is also sad to know that more than 17,000 Filipinos were not so lucky to survive this disease, and yes, that may include some of our friends, relatives, or even family members. And its sad, really sad, because they have not even experienced the end of the pandemic through the wonders of vaccination.
Vaccination is one of our best bets for us to return to the “old normal”. or the way that we had experienced before the pandemic, but right now, with the scarce supply of vaccines coming to the country, it is still a long way off, and as Health Undersecretary Rosette Vergeire told us every single day, while our aim is to have herd immunity, our immediate goal is to prevent ourselves from further getting hospitalized for severe infection, or worse, even death.
So that’s why it’s still a long way off for us to experience the things we long to do, and one of which is attending anime conventions, which is part and parcel of our lives as anime fans.
So, yes, I think every single anime fan in the country are longing for a return to the SMX Convention Center or the SM Megatrade Hall to meet, see cosplayers, and, if there’s a foreign guest, swing again their lightsticks and join in the singing of their favorite anime tunes. We all want to have a semblance of a return to normalcy again, and we hoped it would happen this year, but with the current vaccine shortage, its still a long way off before organizers can even decide if they would even open their doors for an anime convention, especially that these kinds of events is considered by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) as non-essential events.
Let’s be real, even if indeed we achieve the “half” of what we needed for herd immunity (35 million inoculations) by August or September of this year, it will still be tricky to hold a convention like this. For one, we don’t want to discriminate people who have been vaccinated from those who had been unvaccinated, and that includes people below 18 years of age, which is not yet allowed to receive ANY Covid vaccine. We know that this age group, the below 18 years old, are the main audience of anime conventions, and discriminating against them will not only be prudent ethically, but also financially, as despite even being reliant on their parents’ money, they do spend on tickets and merch.
Even if hypothetically we will be able to accept people above 18 years old into the convention hall, we have to enforce numerous health and safety measures, and that includes wearing masks, continuous washing of hands, and physical distancing. which is VERY VERY HARD to do in a convention, as I wrote in my previous column last year. I also wrote beforehand that organizers have a tricky task of either controlling the number of people inside a convention hall, and selling more tickets to earn their keep, as ticket gate receipts are the lifeblood of anime conventions.
Virtual events were seen as a way for organizers to continue having the same “event experience” even at home, through the use of tools such as Zoom, Webex, Streamyard, or even as complex as a virtual event system. But from the few virtual events that I have seen and/or attended, all of them lacked a big element in the anime convention psyche, and that is interactivity.
That “live” experience surely beats being at home, in a computer monitor, and just watching to see something happen in the front of the screen. Nothing beats that experience alone.
While we were able to see hosts having the same lively demeanor as in physical events, I feel that attending an event through Zoom or through a secure website is just like my regular experience in attending a virtual press conference. Yes, the audience may interact with each other by raising their hands or chatting, or event making their cameras and microphones go online, but nothing beats the experience of being inside a convention hall, looking at the different costumes of cosplayers, taking pictures, and participating in side events.
You get to experience the booths, have a handshake with an artist or a cosplayer, and the like. That “live” experience surely beats being at home, in a computer monitor, and just watching to see something happen in the front of the screen. Nothing beats that experience alone.
I know our organizers are trying very hard to make the event experience “fresh” even while doing it online, but, I have to admit, as I have been using Zoom already for my daily press conferences and interviews, I felt tired already of using the platform. I want to experience again that live feeling of going from my home to the SMX convention center, with my camera and tripod, taking pictures and talking to cosplayers, event goers and organizers. Right now, my DSLR is not being used as a photo camera, but instead it is a webcam for my zoom conferences, and I need to use it again to its natural purpose: Taking beautiful pictures just like the two pictures you saw earlier.
So yes, I do miss going to conventions, but for us to go back experiencing anime conventions again, we have to do our “moral obligation” first. and that is to vaccinate ourselves against Covid-19, and also follow the health protocols, wear your mask, wash your hands, and practice physical distancing.
That way, we can go back to our old habits hopefully by the end of this year, and I am hopeful, anime events will be back with a vengeance.
Till next time, That’s the way it is.
/FSD
>> “Even if hypothetically we will be able to accept people above 18 years old into the convention hall, we have to enforce numerous health and safety measures … which [are] VERY VERY HARD to do in a convention. [Organizers] have a tricky task of either controlling the number of people inside a convention hall, and selling more tickets to earn their keep, as ticket gate receipts are the lifeblood of anime conventions.
Nailed it right there! Just to add: dagdag-trabaho rin para sa mga underpaid and overworked security personnel — who now have to deal with the two-pronged problem of convention security and compliance with health protocols. Their plates might be too full pag nagkataon.
Convention organizers could invest in health-related protocols such as temperature checks, contact tracing measures, vaccine passport checks (if bakunado), and bottles of alcohol or sanitizer. But this would necessitate a higher ticket price, which turns off the target market. Knowing the “tubong-lugaw” mentality of a number of organizers – baka nga mag-alangan pa sa measures. Then again, mas mahal ang multa ng IATF sa mga lalabag.
Totoo, very very tricky ang maghold ng events (if pinayagan) lalo na if we would follow ALL protocols.
Organizers are in a quandary talaga, Online events lack the interactivity that you always do in a regular con, pero if you hold naman a regular con, maraming kailangang health protocols. so they are caught between a rock and a hard place.